From the pages of Canadian Railway Modeller: Morgan Turney, in his own words

  One thing that was certain about Morgan: He was an evangelist for the hobby of model railroading. He was constantly encouraging modellers to talk about the hobby and take kids to train shows. Of course, he had a commercial reason for being so enthusiastic: If there were no new modellers, the future of CRM was dim. But it also came from a genuine place in his heart. He loved the hobby and he loved to promote it.   Most model railroaders tell me that there's nothing like going to the local train show. It's a safe bet that we've all been to at least one over the past year. I'm no exception; I like going to them too. I've attended four this yea—three as an exhibitor and one as a visitor. Which one did I enjoy the most? Well, the one where I didn't have to work, of course!   As a visitor to the Mid-Canada Hobby and Toy Show, held in Winnipeg each October, I was free to enjoy each aspect of the exhibits and displays. But the most fun is watching the parents and ...

  Ti-Cat boxcars; that’s a new one for me! Morgan writes about that as an aside in this issue's Dome Car, describing the unique yellow and black TH & B boxcars that were inspired by his beloved Hamilton Tiger Cats football uniforms. He mentioned that while praising the role of special interest groups (SIGs) like the TH&B Historical Society.   And he marks the passing of John Rendall of JR Scale Models of Bracebridge, Ont. Anyone still have one of those kits?   Somebody once asked me if I thought that the prototype special interest groups and their publications served any useful purpose for the modeller. My answer was a resounding "Yes!"   Recently, I received my copy of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Rail way 'Focus', the official publication of the TH&B Historical Society. Inside was an extensive article of some 15 pages on the history of the TH&B box car by Lance Brown. His well researched and documented article covered the time period b...

  Not only do I get to write the Dome Car again, I also have an article and photos in the issue about my late brother-in-law’s layout , the Cougar River Sub. Ken Epp’s spectacular layout was on three levels, with a fourth level for a staging yard hanging a foot from the basement ceiling. It traversed the entire basement, going through all the rooms. It was a must-see during conventions! I also write in this Dome Car about a new feature I helped arrange with Ian Wilson about transition-era railways. That was fun, working with him on that! It was all part of our effort to make CRM as relevant as possible to readers. And I could write about my own layout, too, the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Sub. We were writing out of our experience as model railroaders for the magazine, and we hoped that it showed. People who model the ever-popular transition era have some unique challenges. For example: What was the proportion of home-road to other railway's cars in 1957? What colour were ...

  What is the most unique model railroad club you’ve ever heard of? How about in a war zone? That’s what Morgan wrote about in this Dome Car, when he shared about Canadian peacekeepers in Kosovo who created a club to help them pass the time.   We recently learned about a new Canadian model railway club that's different than most. It has no constitution or politics, no membership dues, no newsletter, no club hats or vests, no annual meeting and will cease to exist by June. Oh, and one other thing: It meets almost every night in an army tent in the backwoods of war-torn Kosovo. It's probably the most heavily armed model railway club around!   The club calls itself the KFOR RR Club and is made up of three Canadian soldiers from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, deployed to Kosovo in December, 1999 for a six-month tour with NATO.   Corporal Andrew Baird of Grand Falls, Newfoundland is a Radio Operator with 23 Engineer Squadron (com'bat en...

Who remembers the Y2K panic? That’s what happened in late 1999 as we looked ahead to the dawn of a new millennium. The fear was that computer clocks, which used a two-digit system (99) wouldn’t be able to handle it when we hit 2000—that they might think it was 1900 and everything would crash. It didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t worried! Morgan mentions this at the start of this Dome Car, noting we all made it. He goes on to mention a frustration over that year’s President’s Choice train set (not available in western Canada), with a nod to how some hobby shop owners were upset about the Great Canadian Superstore infringing on their business. And a CPR C-Liner was available in plastic for the first time!   It looks like we all made it; welcome to the first issue of the year 2000! It promises to be the start of a great century.   Mind you, it's not all good news. We need to adjust some prices due to increased publishing costs. That's not really new, though; e...

  My turn to write a Dome Car again! This time, I give readers a peek behind the editing curtain by answering questions about articles. Questions like why it takes so long to publish them, and why we edit them at all. And I proclaim the advantage of e-mail, still a relatively new technology back then. (We were still getting a lot of articles sent to us on disks.) And I let readers know about their chance to see, for the very first time, the great Waterloo Region Model Railway Club layout. (In the pages of CRM.) These days, we get to see it often online. But back then, CRM was the only way people across the country could learn about it—another great reason why the magazine was such a good thing for Canadian modellers.   One of the questions we get asked most frequently is: "When will my article be published?" As a freelance author myself, I know how hard it is to wait to see if an article is accepted by a publication, and then wait to see it in print. But the truth is th...